various
lands. On the other hand, a probably philo-Roman prince, Cunobelin (known
to literature as Cymbeline), had just been succeeded by two sons,
Caractacus (_q.v._) and Togodumnus, who were hostile to Rome. Caligula, the
half-insane predecessor of Claudius, had made in respect to this event some
blunder which we know only through a sensational exaggeration, but which
doubtless had to be made good. An immediate reason for action was the
appeal of a fugitive British prince, presumably a Roman partisan and victim
of Cunobelin's sons. So Aulus Plautius with a singularly well equipped army
of some 40,000 men landed in Kent and advanced on London. Here Claudius
himself appeared--the one reigning emperor of the 1st century who crossed
the waves of ocean,--and the army, crossing the Thames, moved forward
through Essex and captured the native capital, Camulod[=u]num, now
Colchester. From the base of London and Colchester three corps continued
the conquest. The left wing, the Second Legion (under Vespasian, afterwards
emperor), subdued the south; the centre, the Fourteenth and Twentieth
Legions, subdued the midlands, while the right wing, the Ninth Legion,
advanced through the eastern part of the island. This strategy was at first
triumphant. The lowlands of Britain, with their partly Romanized and partly
scanty population and their easy physical features, presented no obstacle.
Within three or four years everything south of the Humber and east of the
Severn had been either directly annexed or entrusted, as protectorates, to
native client-princes.

A more difficult task remained. The wild hills and wilder tribes of Wales
and Yorkshire offered far fiercer resistance. There followed thirty years
of intermittent hill fighting (A.D. 47-79). The precise steps of the
conquest are not known. Legionary fortresses were established at Wroxeter
(for a time only), Chester and Caerleon, facing the Welsh hills, and at
Lincoln in the northeast. Monmouthshire, and Flintshire with its lead
mines, were early overrun; in 60 Suetonius Paulinus reached Anglesea. The
method of conquest was the establishment of small detached forts in
strategic positions, each garrisoned by 500 or 1000 men, and it was
accompanied by a full share of those disasters which vigorous barbarians
always inflict on civilized invaders. Progress was delayed too by the great
revolt of Boadicea (_q.v._) and a large part of the nominally conquered
Lowlands. Her rising was soon c